Rafika Chawishe

Rafika Chawishe is an awarded actress and director. Her mother is Greek and her father is Syrian. She has been working as a theater-maker in the political and documentary theater in Greece. In 2014, she created the company Zlap. Zlap's performances Notebooks of Crisis,Volume I and Notebook of Crisis, Volume II were presented at the Athens Biennial, The Mixer Festival in Belgrade, and the Institute of Mihalis Kakoyiannis. Rafika recently directed a performance at the National Theater of Oslo/Ibsen Festival/Monsters of Reality the Mimesis Machine. In 2017 she was selected by the NEON foundation to commission her new media installation performance as a ground breaking idea. She also recently won the Ibsen scholarship- Ibsen Awards to support her theatre-media project based on the subject of nationality, citizenship and belonging. As an actress she has performed a cameo role in the awarded film of A. Avranas " Miss Violence" produced by Faliro House Productions S.A. She also holds a minor role in the film " Dance fight, love die" by Asteris Koutoulas on Mikis Theodorakis, where she plays Melina Merkouri . The film was screened in Germany and in Greece in various Movie Theatres in April 2018. On stage, she has collaborated with the National Theater, the Athens Festival, , the ancient theater of Epidavre etc. She started performing in a young age, in productions, portraying leading parts from the classical repertory. As a film director she has directed three short films. The films have screened in various film festivals around the world . In 2014, Chawishe at the Locarno Film Festival in the Young Filmmakers Academy. She is a dynamic children rights' activist and has worked extensively with unaccompanied refugee minors at the first reception center in Lesvos, Moria, Greece.